Hi Joe,

             First, I have always believed that some American mispronounced Chassee and it stuck.  I recently saw this in the 1957 “History of Square Dancing”, page 18:

    *** "chassee" (always pronounced "sashay" today; it is actually spelled "sasha" in John Burbank's New Collection of Country dances, Brookfield, 1799) ***

So, it looks like I was right, and it happened a long time ago!

https://archive.org/details/historyofsquared00damo/page/18/mode/2up?view=theater

             Second, in Modern Western Square Dancing there was a move called “Full Sashay” or “Sashay All The Way Around” where you did it twice, the person on the right always going behind.  MWSD no longer uses these terms, but the move we know is still a “Half”.

            Happy dancing,

                   John

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

From: Joe Harrington via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: 05 September 2025 18:07
To: Shared Weight Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Why is it a half-sashay?

Would someone please explain why moving your right foot out to your right and following it by moving your body and left foot is only half a sashay?  Seems like a full sashay to me.  Half a sashay would be like, taking a wide stance and stopping.  In ballet, a chasse' is walking by moving one foot out and following it up with the other, never crossing them. Based on some limited reading, I don't think it's counted (as in, chasse' three times), but rather refers to the style of walking, say as opposed to jogging.  I could be mistaken.

"Roll away with a half sashay!" sure rolls off the tongue nicely, though...

--jh--